Penteken vettem egy turacipot szombatra a kirandulasra, jofajta Columbia akciosan + kaptam egy-ket tippet hol lehet megolcsobban venni dolgokat (azert szep lassan belejovok a dolgokba :D).
Szombat, hajnal 5:30 keles, el kell csipni a 6:26-os vonatot. Zuhi, pakolas, reggeli, szendvicskeszites majd egy olimpiai sprint es meg pont el is ertem a vonatot. Termeszetesen, hogy egy nap se teljen el 'kozlekedesi erdekessegek' nekul, hetvegen vagayfelujitas es zar volt az en vonalamon, szoval eltelt par perc 2 megallonal mire ki/megtalaltam, hogy akkor most nekem merre is kell majd mennem. De szerencsesen megerkeztem a kulvarosba, alig 10 perc kesessel :). Ott megismerkedtem par uj emberrel: egy spanyol csajszi (1 hete erkezett), 1 mexikoi srac (o itt van mar 3 eve), 1 ausztral srac (eleg ritkak manapsag Sydneyben :D) meg Marcin es en, igy mentunk el Katoomba-ba, ami a hegyseg hozzank kozelebb eso vegenel fekvo kis, aranyos hegyi telepules. Elso allomas az Echo Point (`Visszhang Pont`), hat a taj lenyugozo. Minden elenkzold a kornyeken, kicsit tavolabb pedig a para es a napsutes miatt mar turkizkeknek tunik, innen is jon a neve.
Bameszkodas, 5 perc tanakodas, h melyik osvenyen induljunk el, majd elindultunk. Sok minden erdekes tapasztalatra tettem szert ekozben...
- Tavolsag, uresseg: mi egy forgalmasabb utat valasztottunk; ertsd: a bejaratnal es a kijaratnal ugy 10-20 emberrel osszefutottunk. Kozte eltelt 6-7 oraban senki. Nincs terero sehol.
- Termeszet tisztelete. `Itt a ne nyulj semmihez!` alapszabaly, ha nem akarsz a/ baromi nagy fajdalmat atelni; b/ a+meghalni. Itt is el egy csomo halalos pok, kigyo stb, amik altalaban elkerulik azt a fel meteres savot/lepcsoket, amit itt turistautaknak hivnak (ld. kepek), de ha veletlenul osszefutsz veluk, akkor jobb beken hagyni oket. Erre kedvesen figyelmeztet is partiz tabla :)
Az elso 30 percben minden egyes poktol majd beszartam, aztan rajottem, hogy vagy megszokom oket, vagy ne menjek tovabb; ketto legalabb ingyen kurat kapok a pokiszonyom ellen. Hat egy oraval kesobb mar nem volt semmi gond, de azert nem simogatnek meg pokot.
Maga a tura kb 5000-6000 lepcso megmaszasabol allt, le es fel, megspekelve egy lenyugozoen gyonyoru, majdnem erintetlen tajjal, rengeteg vizesessel, fakkal, madarakkal (papagajok, kakaduk+egyeb kisebb-nagyobb, altalam ismeretlen szarnyas), kristalytiszta levegovel, nezzetek meg a kepeket, en minden masodik kanyarnal, mini-kilatonal megalltam bameszkodni, annyira szep volt. El is dontottem, hogy ide meg legalabb egyszer visszamegyek egy masik utonalat is megnezni.
Delutan, meg megneztuk a turistaverziojat is a hegysegnek, ertsd: minden szepen kiepitve, kerekesszekkel is meg lehet nezni (!), 3 fajta vasut (kabel, egi meg, meredek), szuvenirbolt, etterem, ami kell. Hat mi is megneztuk az egi vasutat: 3 perces ut a vizeses felett, uvegpadlos kabinban, szep volt, de semmi extra. Utana vissza is setaltunk a kocsihoz, majd irany haza. Masnap reggel kellemes izomlazzal ebredtem, ami meg ma is tart. :)
Last week was quite interesting. The job improved a lot that I took over some duties from my colleagues, so I very much enjoyed it by the end of the week.
One fo the evenings I was at a lecture at one of the universities here. The President of the Intergovernmental Climate Change Council (UN body, last year were awarded with the Nobel-prize) had a ceremonial speech and I saw a traditional australian degree ceremony as well. Unfortunately I did not make any pictures, however these were the funkiest clothes ever, same as in England. The main difference is that they were joking all the time, so it was quite cool. Formal, but funny. Good combination. The speech itself was interesting, but quite introductorz. Main message: The earlier we start changing our lifestyles for a sustainable world (meaning within max 5-8 yrs) and start investing some hundreds of billions of dollars (in the next 30 yrs), the lesser irreversabile effects will the climate change cause. If we won't change, then well, I am not too sure I wanna have a very long life. The most interesting in the lecture was, that it did not have an "end of the world" feeling, rather a "these are the facts and figures, ordinary people like us should start to do something about it". It was very symphatetic.
I woke up at 5:30AM on Saturday, I had to catch by train at 6:26. Shower, breakfast. making sandwiches and an olympic run and I managed to catch the train. To further enrich my experience with the transportation here, there were road works and lane closures on the weekend, of course on my line, so it took some time at 2 stations while I managed to figure out where to go next. But I arrived to the suburbs safely, only with a 10 min delay :) There I met some new guys: a spanish girl (arrived a week ago), a mexican guy (arrived 3 yrs ago) and an australian guy (pretty rare in Sydney nowadays), plus Marcin and Me. This was the group who left for Katoomba, which is a pleasent village on the closer side of the mountains. First station was Echo Point, well the view was absolutely amazing. Everything is bright green, but looking from a bit further because of the humidity and the sunlight it looks blue, there we go, that's why it is called the Blue Mountains.
Wondering around, 5 minutes discussion on which path to go, then we left. I managed to gain valuable experiences meanwhile...
- Distance, emptiness: we chose a more frequently used path, meaning: at the entrance at the exit we met around 20 people. During the 6-7 hours in between nobody. And no network either.- Respect for nature: Here the main rule is "Don't touch anything!", if you do not want to be a/ live a wonderfully hurting pain b/ a+die. There numerous deadly spiders here etc. which are usually not seen on that 50cm wide path/stairs which are called the tourist tracks (see pics), but if you accidentally meet them, well, you rather should leave them alone. There are some nice warning signs as well :)
The tour itself was about climbing app. 5000-6000 stairs, up and down, including a spectacular view, almost untouched nature, plenty of waterfalls, trees, birds (parrots, kakadus + some more smaller-bigger, unknown birds, at least for me), crystal clear air, check the pictures, I stopped at almost every second look out point and corner, just to look around and enjoy the view. I decided that I wanna go back there at least once more to see a different track as well.
In the afternoon we checked the tourist version of the mountain as well, meaning: everything is nicely paved, wheelchair accesible(!), 3 types of railway (cable, sky and steep), souvenir shop, restaurant, everything you want. Well, we took a ride on the skyrail as well: 3 minutes trip over a waterfall, glass-floored cabin, very nice, but nothing amazingly special. Then we walked back to the car and went home. A day after I woke up with a pain in my muscles that lasted for some days :)
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